Campaign of the Month:
June 2008

Horn of the North

Prologue

How the first heroes came together

I, Aikarus, shall begin the story in the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr. Truly that is where this tome has its beginning. The origins of the various heroes whose exploits shall comprise these pages are tales best left told by other authors in other volumes.

On the 17th Day of Kythorn in the Year of the Ageless One (1479 by the Dalereckoning) four heroes arrived to join a fifth in the Cormyrian border town of Winterhaven. Elithia Verdantstrike, an elf ranger of the Dales proficient with the bow and arrow, Dot, an eladrin warlock of Myth Drannor and friend of the fey, Kalar, a wizard of the elves also from Myth Drannor, and Rurick, a stout fighter of the northern shield dwarves, all joined Alain of Winterhaven, who walked the path of a warlord.

Rurick, Kalar, Dotara (who shall be Dot henceforth, the nickname she prefers), and Elithia – who all came to Winterhaven for a myriad of reasons – had found Kobolds and destroyed one band of them shortly before arriving in town. While in town, discussions with Lord Padraig, the hereditary lord of the small fief of Winterhaven, led to the four heroes setting off the next day (Kythorn 18) to destroy the Kobolds in their own lair. Alain, not formally a guard (though he was trained to be a leader of men by his father, a member of the town watch) and wanting to take the fight to the Kobolds rather than wait, set out secretly to join the four.

It was outside the lair of the lizardly beasts that Alain met up with the others. After clearing out the den and putting to the sword one, “Irontooth” – a goblin of some skill – a letter was found suggesting that Shar spies and cultists had infiltrated the town and environs. They returned to Winterhaven and helped root out and execute a Sharish spy for the cult leader Kalarel, a she elf ranger named Ninaran.

On Kythorn 19, the heroes set out to find one Douven Stahl of Arabel, an eccentric explorer who was a childhood mentor of Kalar. He had sought, and found, a dragon burial site near Winterhaven and had vanished some months back. They found him at the burial site, beaten and near death at the hands of Kalarel’s minions. What they sought in the burial site, at the time was unclear. All signs pointed to the Keep on the Shadowfell, the former ancestral home of the Keegans of Winterhaven, as the den of Kalarel’s evil. He sought to summon Shadraxil, a Dragon trapped long years past.

On the morning of the Summer Solstice; the 20th day of Kythorn, the heroes awoke to a spectral purple sky and the oppressive weight of a ritual of dark magic taking place. They raced to the Keep on the Shadowfell to end Kalarel’s magic and prevent the return of Shadraxil…

The is the H1 Keep on the Shadowfell module which I will be glossing over in this journal and just touching on the high points. As of this writing, the party is about to face Kalarel himself in the final room of the dungeon. We began the Module in July of 2008. In spite of various setbacks, it appears on course for completion … or a total party wipe.